Finding Home
by knittingknots
Summary: Post Manga. One evening, InuYasha is troubled after being gone from home a long time. What has happened to him? And how does Kagome react? Takes place at the end of July, 1573 in my story timeline. Now a 2-shot. Rating is changed.
1. Chapter 1

_I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**Finding Home, Part One**

_A/N This story takes place shortly after the second siege of Nagashima in July, 1573. Nagashima, was the location of a string of river island fortresses and defensive works controlled by the Ikko-ikki, a Buddhist sect made up of peasants and others which fought against the feudal lords. A rainstorm hit Oda Nobunaga's forces just as he was about to open the battle. The rain rendered 90% of his guns useless and left his men in a terribly weak defensive position. The Ikko-ikki troops immediately counter-attacked as soon as the rain let up, and even came quite close to killing Nobunaga and he was forced to retreat._ _InuYasha and Kagome have been married about 16 years by this time._

Night had fallen, and their children were asleep.

InuYasha prepared the fire for the night. Kagome put away the last of the dishes, then began laying the last of the laundry in the clothing cabinet. Neither spoke as they attended to their work, and the silence was uncomfortable. InuYasha, his right ear twitching, snapped a small branch in half and threw it on the fire, stood up, and moved to the door, sliding it open. Kagome sighed deeply, put the last of the clothes away and followed him outside.

He was standing in the open, the moonlight, only a couple of days away from full, cascading over his silver hair. He didn't turn to look as moved closer, but instead, turned his face up to the moon.

"The only thing I could think of when those bastards had me trapped in that cesspool they called a temple was getting back to you," he said. His fists clenched, even though his voice was soft. "They kept me in that damn warded room for two months. If it hadn't been for the Oda attacking, I might still be there now.

"Some point during the siege, the wards failed." Taking a deep breath, he looked at her. "It was raining like hell. I don't know how I got out of Nagashima in one piece. I ran like mad and only stayed long enough to find my sword. It was hard getting back. I had to dodge the crazy Ikko and all the troops there."

His voice fell silent. Even in the moonlight, Kagome could see anger, and fear, and yes, shame, too, in his eyes and his face, and how he carried himself. She walked up to him, rested a hand on his chest. "But you're home now," she said.

InuYasha rested his hand over hers, and drew her closer. "Why doesn't it feel real yet? Why do I feel like I'm still on the run?"

"It's real," she said, and gently, rising on her toes, brushed her lips across his.

Suddenly, his arms wrapped around her, crushing her to him, and his lips returned her kiss, needy, intense, hungry, drinking in her taste. After a moment he pulled away. His eyes, lit by the moon, glowed with an unearthly light, burning into her.

"Damn it, woman, I need you," he said, running his fingers through her hair. "I was so afraid I wouldn't make it back, and you 'd never know what happened."

"But you did, and I'm here for you," she replied. "Come home, InuYasha. Let me take you home."

He kissed her gently on the forehead. "Yeah, that sounds good."

Taking his hand, she led him back into the house. Somehow, he knew that no matter how long it took, together, they would find their home again with each other.


	2. Chapter 2

_I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**Finding Home, Part 2**

They were fresh from the bath. InuYasha had undressed in front of her reluctantly, as if ashamed to let his wife see what had become of him in their time apart, but she had gotten him washed off, her hand brushing against his skin, already healing from his ordeal of running cross-country to return to her.

Kagome waited patiently while he soaked, not saying anything about the haunted look in his eyes, how his ear twitched at the slightest sound, nor how thin he had gotten while the Ikko-ikki had trapped him, but something inside of her swelled, needing to make things right, to chase away his ghosts.

Now though, the moment had come where they knelt on the futon, facing each other, their kosodes crumpled on the ground beside the bed, their hearts beating too fast for a couple who had been together this long.

InuYasha took a deep breath, and caught her hands in his, and rested them against his chest.

She looked up in his eyes as they studied her face, dark bronze and wanting in the dim lamplight.

"I dreamed of this moment," he said. His voice was rough, like the words were hard to say. "Every day, thinking about you kept me from giving into the anger. It would have been so easy just to let my blood take over."

Her eyes glistened. She could feel the pain rolling off him, a palpable thing - she hadn't seen him this confused, uncertain, lost since she first released him from the Goshinboku. She ran her hands along his chest, feeling how thin he had gotten while he was away

"I was so scared," she said, admitting to that darkness that had rolled over her for weeks. "I could feel the wrongness, but I didn't know what - "

His hands dropped hers, and instead, cupped her face, and leaned gently forward into a kiss. It was gentle, even shy. Pulling away, he rested his head on her forehead. "The cell they kept me in, it had stone walls. I would imagine pulling them down, one by one and when I had enough of them down, you would be there, waiting for me."

She tipped her head up and lifted her hands to his face, running each along his jaw until they slid upward, past the point where his ears would be if it were the full moon, into the silver of his hair. "The walls are all gone, InuYasha, all gone. And here I am."

He crushed her to him. She could feel his bones where before there was solid muscle, but he was there, warm and needy and alive. Unable to stop herself, the tears streamed down her cheeks, even as she reached up and caught his mouth with hers - the certain knowledge of his warmth and scent and solidness, the feel of his youki pressing against her aura, everything that screamed that he was here, home, and not a phantom wrapped around him.

They became reacquainted with each other's taste drinking deeply. He kissed her tears away, and she could feel the dampness on his own cheeks.

"Gods, woman, I need you to be real," he whispered into her ear, his mouth exploring the side of her neck, his hands dancing across her skin. "I need to be away from that stone and rain and running and just be here."

He lowered her to the futon, and kissed her again, with all the hunger and need he had stored up through their days apart, then lifting himself up on his elbows, he studied her face. "It must be real," he said, lightly brushing the tear tracks on her left cheek with his thumb. "You never cried in my imagination."

She pulled him closer by his hair. "Neither did you," she said , kissing both of his cheeks.

"Men don't cry," he said, finally cracking a small smile.

She wrapped her legs around him. "Show me what men do then." Her voice was sultry, and needy, and just what he needed to hear.

With a sound between a groan and a growl, he slid into her, warm, wet and everything that was home to his soul.

They didn't last long - Kagome first, swiftly followed by her husband. But as he called out at his peak, Kagome was certain she could hear something off in the distance, like a rock slide, or the sound of a building collapsing. Even though he might be a long time believing it, he was out of that prison and back where he was supposed to be. Sighing contentedly, she knew she too was really home.


End file.
